News

Read the original story in the Portland Business Journal's Sustainable Business Oregon here.

Portland State University has chosen seven teams to move ahead in its second annual Cleantech Challenge.

Each team, comprised of at least one PSU student, will get $2,500 to work on prototypes of their projects during the summer. The challenge culminates with a contest in September, competing for a $25,000 grand prize.

Last year's contest divided the top prize evenly between two winners: Mobius Microfarms and Diatomix. Mobius installed its first commercial aquaponics system in Portland's Tabla restaurant in May. Diatomix created a coating for solar panels that could boost their efficiency.

Teams include a range of university participants, including professors.

"We were thrilled to see so much cross-campus collaboration," said Cleantech Challenge project manager Quinn Read in a statement. "We have engineering students working with business students, and collaborations between faculty, postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates."

The finalist projects include:

• "The Portland Shower," a way to reduce water consumption by recycling shower water in a safe and easy open-loop system.

• "The Portland ACE," a portable, low-cost, networked device for assessing cyclists’ exposure to air pollution.

• Circuit designs to increase the efficiency and lower the cost of solar cells by using AC voltage.